The Perl 7 Retrospective: the Promise, the Fight, the Loss - Sawyer X - TPRC 2023

#perl #tprc #perl7 #retrospective

In 2020, I announced we’d begin work on Perl 7, the new phase of the Perl programming language.

Some liked it; some didn’t. Arguments ensued, people quit, friendships crumbled, new governance emerged, and the project was shelved.
In this talk, I cover what happened - maybe with a joke or two.

Instead of rehashing arguments and ranting, I want to dig, honestly and sincerely, into the intentions behind Perl 7, how I tried to make it work, the mistakes I’ve made, and the responsibility I think many of us share for this disaster. I’ll share my uninformed opinion of Perl’s future and the challenges the language will have to deal with.